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Nothing Has Changed

Sometimes EN24 will pick up one of my posts and syndicate it over on their site. Years ago they asked if that would be ok and I said sure why not, no one else asked. They don't tell me ahead of time and often I don't even know about it. I don't visit the news sites everyday. So it wasn't until yesterday that I discovered my recent "Go Eve!" post had been picked up. By then there were already 70 comments.

Which is fine, no big deal. But one comment lingers and it bothers me. Someone made the accusation that obviously I want Eve to succeed simply to see profit from my recent entry into merchandising. Which is ludicrous. Believe me, I have no bills that will be getting paid from that project. I'm proud of it, I worked my ass off for it, but it ain't sending any of my four children to college.

It isn't the money that bothers me however. It is the implication that somehow I would write something extremely positive about Eve just to keep the wheels rolling. And hence enhance my own, however thread bare, relationship with CCP.

Instead of lowering myself to directly answer such an accusation I want to share a story. Before I started writing this blog way back in January of 2010 I entered a contest that CrazyKinux was holding on his blog. The contest was to write an essay that answered a simple question, why do you love Eve?

I was one of the winners of that contest and I published the entry here in these pages in January of 2010. 1,690 odd posts ago. I'm going to post it again below and let me ask you a simple question, what has changed?

"I've never played an MMORG before Eve. I'm not an experienced WoW player and hadn't even considered playing some crazy, social networking, computer platforming, role-playing, massive anything before I first laid eyes on the Eve universe. That moment is burned into my brain even a year and a half later. The exact nano-second I saw Eve I knew I must play it. Do not stop at Go and do not collect two hundred dollars. Now.

It was spaceships, it was in 3d and it looked amazingly incredible, but most of all it looked like a place I needed to be. A place I had dreamed of being since I was little more than a zygote. A place that needed me to be there, flying around and doing something. Doing anything I wanted. The reality of Eve is much more complex than the way it looks, the way its beauty overwhelms you and surrounds you on first viewing, certainly those are the elements that drew me to the game. But Eve is much, much more than that. And, in some ways, much less. It is messy, it is complex, it is deep and defining, it is dirty, clean, evil, twisted, hard to learn... Eve is so much like life itself. Eve is anything you want it to be.

And that is the true beauty of Eve, the thing that generates "love". The passion, the commitment, the raw power that drives you onward and upward toward whatever goals you may have set yourself. It is incredibly defined and yet completely open ended. And that is the sick, twisted glory of it all, a game so complex that a year and a half later I still feel as if I have only scratched its surface. Only now started to get a grasp of its true nature, only now begun to feel as if I am on my way towards something. And that something is whatever you want it to be. They call it a "sandbox" and I suppose that is as good a word as any, but Eve allows you to define your own destiny. To achieve whatever you want, there are no paths to be followed, no well-worn network of previously followed answers from point A to point B. There is no point A and point B is off in a distant part of the universe. You can truly make, build, live, fight for your own destiny. Alone, with several friends, or with hundreds and thousands of distant warriors.

Eve is unlike anything else. Some days I hate it, some days I want to rip its innards from CCP's servers, some days it is glorious, others it is funny, sad, whatever it is it is very much a living, breathing world of its own. And every day it surprises, annoys, and grabs me like it did that very first day. Love? Oh yes, I suppose one could use that word, but I believe that Eve deserves a more fitting refrain. Love is something reserved for a soul-mate, a family dog, or your actual family. To me Eve is a passion. A romance of dreams. Dreams I've held onto since I was a wee lad and will never let go of."

3 comments:

It's a valid comment, though, Rixx. Once money enters into an equation, however little there might be (and the commenter probably has no idea how you make or don't make), there comes with it some skepticism about one's motives, for good or ill.

I appreciate the fact that everyone is going to make their own judgements and come to their own opinions. That is entirely natural and bully for them. That doesn't make everyone's judgement and/or opinion an informed one however. Regardless they are free to have them.

Anyone that follows you on Twitter will know how passionate you are about the game. You freely give an incredible amount of your time to the EVE community. So in regards to the commentator on EN24 I suspect it was a throwaway remark from someone who doesn't know you that well. If money was a real motivation we'd see Evoganda littered with advertising and posts spread over several click pages. I would also speculate that on balance the costs of all that you freely provide are far in excess of the meager income stream.

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EVE + Propaganda = Eveoganda. Your one-stop Magazine and gateway to the Gaming Community, for over eight years Eveoganda has been stirring pots, taking on hypocrisy, and creating great content for the Eve Community. All in the name of fun, adventure and internet spaceships.

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